Game development is perceived by many as a complex field requiring in-depth knowledge of programming languages. Yet, while it does demand technical skills and aptitude, it’s no longer as difficult to get into as it used to be. Modern tools and platforms are making game development increasingly more accessible, even to people without a solid programming background. Below is an overview of best game development tools you can use if you want to your game idea brought to reality.
Some of the tools listed below are quite simple, but you still can use them to build a great game, even if they are aimed at beginners. Other tools are more advanced. Depending on your level of expertise, this overview should give you an idea which game development tools are better tailored for your project.
The first and the most basic tool in this overview, Twine is an open source platform build for creating interactive stories (much like Dungeons and Dragons) and publishing them directly into HTML. Its scope is rather limited and it won’t allow you to build complex epic games. On the upside, it is a great tool to start with, if you’re just making your first steps in game development. It’s simple, easily exportable and offers free hosting for games.
You can add text and images and interlink them with other parts of the story. The game passages are displayed in boxes with arrows showing the further direction of the game flow. With Twine, you can also add audio and video to your interactive quest, use CSS to change visual appearance, and add variables to your games (like inventory, cash, limited health, etc). You can also use JavaScript to add more features.
Twine exports into HTML and publishes into a website. It can also be converted into a mobile app. The hosting remains completely free, even if you use your game for commercial purposes.
Another game-making tool targeted at beginners, RPG Maker was first released in 1992, which makes it almost the same age as consumer Internet. It’s currently not available in SaaS version and has to be installed on your computer. RPG Maker’s interface does look a bit out of date, but it’s surely easy to use and has a great number of options you can access just by using the menu (introducing new characters, changing the way they look, etc).
The game allows you to choose from a range of characters and environments. They will surely look familiar to other players of RPG Maker games, but you can customize them to make them look unique. The platform creators are constantly working on introducing new assets: characters, environments, and sounds. You can also expand RPG Maker with a range of plugins, and there’s a vast community on the web sharing tips and other related content.
RPG Maker will let you publish to all major platforms (Window, Android and iOS), expect gaming consoles, and has embedded encryption option for security protection. On the downside, RPG Maker games do have similar look and feel; on the upside, though, the platform allows to easily develop large game areas and has vast user support.
Unlike RPG Maker, this tool will allow you to create 2D games in a range of genres. Game Maker is also great if you want to make a painless transition from drag-and-drop development and actually start coding. The platform has its own proprietary Game Maker Language you can use to add more complex features to your project. It also comes with an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for creating various aspects of the game: rooms, sprites, objects, tilesets, and images.
Game Maker has a number of payment packages: from free ‘light’ version to a costly $1,500 version which lets you publish to just about any existing platforms including game consoles. With Game Maker you export to Windows desktop, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, Android, iOS, fireTV, Android TV, Microsoft UWP, HTML5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Now, we are finally focusing on more advanced game development platforms for those who have coding experience and want to create something more complex. Unity is a powerful tool widely acknowledged by professional developers along with Unreal Engine, and combining simple design interface with excellent coding capabilities (Microsoft Visual Studio IDE ). With Unity, you can easily manage the design, use drag and drop tools and switch to coding whenever you need more control.
Unity allows you to create both 2D and 3D games. Because of the extensive number of features, the interface is neither intuitive nor simple, but ones you get used to it, it will let you create truly complex and spectacular games. To code with Unity, you can use propriety Unity Script or C#, although experts strongly recommend coding with C#. All analysis and debugging are easily handled by Microsoft Visual Studio.
With Unity, you can publish to all major platforms, including mobile. This platform is free but has a number of paid versions with an extended list of features.
Unreal Engine is a professional tool, widely used by development studios to create high-profile commercial games. It’s, generally, easier to use than Unity, with a more intuitive interface and in-game previews. To guide you along the development process, Unreal Engine has a range of templates for different game types (RPG, FPS, driving and exploration-based games) and an impressive library of 3D assets, which are easy to place and drag into the game. With so many ready-made blueprints and available templates, you won’t have to code a lot, but if your project requires coding, you will have to code in C++. Similarly to Unity, the default IDE is Microsoft Visual Studio, although you can switch to iOS XCode or other IDE’s if you want to.
Unreal Engine publishes to all major platforms and is free unless your game becomes a popular commercial hit. Until your game brings you over $3000 of quarterly revenues, you don’t have to pay anything. After that, you will be obliged to pay 5% of your earnings, so the platform does have the potential to become expensive.
Even if you start off with simple games, these tools will help you to eventually move to more complex projects. As you get confident enough to start making real-time games for multiple players, make sure to create a scalable and reliable web-connected backend. At VARTEQ, we offer a cloud platform with powerful backend modules for building social multiplayer games. Integrated with the best game-development features, Festi Cloud Platform will help you create challenging games and increase player engagement.